Extremes of Online Interpersonal Relationships

Brian ColemanAngela Lutheran

April 19 2012

Survey Design

• Taken from Pew Internet surveys– Princeton University

• Maximal 55 questions*• Question Style– Yes or no– Likert scale– Dimensional analysis

Survey Participants

37%

41%

8%

7% 2%

3% 2%

Age Range

15-2021-2526-3031-3536-4041-4546-50

• Not Compensated• Anonymous honesty

Race

79

8 3 1

Caucasian

African American

Asian

Multiracial

By # out of 91 Total Participants

Gender Orientation Demographics

Extremes via Survey

Linking Research & our Participants

“Holds more weight with age”

Other Interesting Outlier

• Sexual Orientation & Exploration– Male– Prefers Men– Is married– Identifies as heterosexual– Somewhat agreed that some

people who use online dating lie about whether they are married

Correlation between Responses?

Ross M. (2005) found that even TRUST and INTIMACY are heightened when communicating online versus face to face.

Characteristics of the Sex Extreme

Consistent with Other Researchers

VS. Romantic seeker as examined in Bauermeister, Leslie-Santana, Johns, & Pingel’s (2010)

Strengths of Survey

Limitations of Survey

1. Large Sample Size2. Internal Validity for Constructs

3. Longitudinal comparison 4. Further information from outliers

LACKS:

Conclusion

• Our survey addressed not only extremes of online interpersonal relationships

• But also, contained outliers that have been backed by psychological literature

• As with every experiment, this study can be replicated and improved to produce stronger results and to gain new insight